Chapter Twenty

Finn

" H ow did your ‘epic' date go last night, Slick?" Danny asked as he leaned against my bedroom door.

Picking my dirty socks off the floor, I balled them up and slam-dunked them into my dirty-clothes hamper. "Nailed it."

"On the first date?" His eyes rounded in surprise. "Didn't see that coming."

"I didn't nail Chessly. Jeez. Give me some credit for being a gentleman." I shook my head in disgust. "I nailed the date." A grin ghosted over my mouth at the memory of Chessly's expression when she saw the picnic I'd laid out on the turf. "I showed my lady a real good time."

Giving me a slow clap, he said, "Good for you, man. You gonna see her again?"

"Studying together this afternoon."

"Studying'?" he asked with air quotes. "Great euphemism."

"Because we are studying." I rolled my eyes as I shouldered past him into the hall on my way to the stairs. "Chess has a big quantum physics midterm, and my asshole physical chemistry prof is still assigning daily problems and quizzes."

I dropped down the stairs two at a time with Danny right on my heels. When I reached the bottom, I heard giggling coming from the kitchen.

"Sounds like someone has company this morning," I said.

Behind me Danny chuckled.

The two of us walked in on Jamaica and Callahan nose to nose, smiling at each other. She sat on the countertop with her legs wrapped around him, the two of them oblivious to our presence until I cleared my throat—loudly.

Simultaneously, they turned their faces toward the doorway though the sides of their heads remained touching. "Good morning, Finn. How was your hot date?" Callahan asked before he put a little space between him and his girl.

"Epic. As promised." I grinned.

Jamaica's lips twitched. "Chess thought so too?"

The memory of my sweet girl grinding against me as I'd pinned her to the turf surged up in my brain, leaving a heaviness in my balls. "Yeah, pretty sure she had a good time." I hid the rasp in my voice with a deliberate walk to the fridge. "We got any burritos left?" I glanced away from the open door to the fridge to catch my friends smirking at each other. "What?" I asked.

"I can't decide if you're lying to us or—" Callahan stopped and exchanged a knowing glance with Jamaica.

"Or?"

Whatever he saw on my face spread a cheesy grin over his. "Or you had an epic date last night."

"It's what I keep telling you assholes." Clearing my throat, I added, "Not including you in that, Jamaica."

She laughed. "I didn't think you were."

Danny stepped around me to peruse the contents of the fridge. "Doesn't look like we have any burritos left. Who's up for biscuits and gravy?"

Jamaica pushed off the counter to land practically on Callahan's toes. "I'll make the biscuits if you make the sausage and gravy," she said to Danny.

Just like that the conversation moved from Chessly and me to breakfast, but I wasn't stupid. At some point I could expect an ambush when they thought I wasn't paying attention.

It came near the end of the meal. As I sopped up the dregs of the gravy on my plate with the last biscuit I'd won from Danny in a spirited game of Rochambeau—because he always went to scissors, which made it easy to beat him—Callahan slipped in a sly question.

"Girls talk, you know. Wonder what Chessly will tell my girl when they meet for coffee?"

"That I showed her a good time and was a complete gentleman while I did it." I stood and walked my plate over to the sink where I rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher. "Fuck's sake. The way you guys act, you'd think I don't have a clue how to treat a woman." I grabbed the now empty frying pan off the trivet in the middle of the table and went to work washing it. Since my buddies had done all the cooking, the cleanup was on me. Their commentary made me want to finish in record time so I could escape to my room to avoid any more of it.

Bax must have spent the night at Piper's, so at least I was spared his bullshit. Could have done without Danny following me to my room, though.

"So your date is coming over to study today?" he asked, mocking me with the corner of his mouth as he crossed his arms and leaned on the doorframe to watch me strip the sheets from my bed. "Totally explains the need for clean sheets."

"It's Sunday, asshole. I always wash my sheets on Sunday—that is if someone lets me have a turn with the washer." I shot him my own mocking grin. "You got a thing for appliances? Seems like you spend a lot of time in the laundry room."

"Ha, ha. You're hilarious, Finnegan."

Pulling a set of clean sheets from the bottom drawer of my dresser, I motioned to him. "If you insist on razzing me, you could make yourself useful, at least."

"Fuuuck." He pushed away from the door and dragged his ass over to the side of the bed. "The one thing I promised myself after I left the Air Force was I'd never make a bed again if I didn't have to."

I snapped the bottom sheet across the mattress, and he grabbed a corner with enough force to pop the fabric out of my hand. Snagging the elastic corner again, I pulled it over the edge of the mattress and tucked it in. In about a second flat, we had the bottom sheet pulled so tight over the mattress we could have bounced a quarter off it.

"Guess that explains your bed." I flicked the top sheet over the mattress and smoothed my side of it.

Even after stopping to flip me the bird, Danny was way ahead of me, his side looking utterly perfect. I tossed the blankets across, and in about five seconds, he'd smoothed them out and folded a perfect hospital corner at the bottom of his side. I stopped for a moment to stare at his work before finishing my side.

Clearing my throat, I asked, "Was there a prize for being the fastest at making your bed?"

"Our sergeant usually rolled us out of bed about two minutes before he demanded we be on the parade ground—dressed in fatigues with our beds made and our teeth brushed. Last one to muster got twenty extra push-ups during PT."

I blew out a breath. "Fuck, man. Your sergeant sounds like a bigger hard-ass than Coach Larkin."

"Larkin's a teddy bear compared to my CO, trust me."

Standing at the bottom of the bed, I snapped my comforter across it without asking for Danny's help, but he gave it anyway. I wasn't a big fan of making the bed either, but with my teammate's help, the job took about a tenth of the time it normally took me.

"Before today I thought you were kind of a slob, but now I get why your bed's a disaster. I wouldn't appreciate the daily reminder of all that military fun either."

I gathered up the dirty sheets and stuffed them on top of my smelly workout gear in my hamper. The faint stench of sweat had started to sneak out into my room, telling me I was a day or two past when I should have done laundry.

"Thanks for the help," I said as I carried my dirty clothes out into the hall.

"You still haven't answered the question," Danny said as he followed me.

"Like I told you earlier, we're studying together. We do that often, actually."

He narrowed his eyes. "I've only ever seen Chessly here with Jamaica. When have you two been studying together?"

I headed downstairs. "Since the beginning of the semester. But we usually meet up in the Union or Hillman."

"Yet today she's coming over here? That must have been an epic date last night."

I heard the laughter in his voice as he followed me through the house to the laundry room.

"Don't you have something better to do than follow me around today?"

He watched me load my sheets into the washer, measure out laundry soap, and turn on the machine. "Nope. Sundays are my day off from the tire shop. Thought maybe you'd want to get your ass kicked in Madden this morning."

Bax and I usually played COD together against a bunch of guys online. Of course, that activity slowed way down after he started seeing Piper. Danny, on the other hand, hardly ever wanted to play COD , opting for Madden instead. He said after his military service, first-person shooter games stopped being as much fun.

Didn't matter today, though, because I was busy. Grabbing the vacuum from its closet beside the dryer, I said, "Don't have time to beat up on your donkeys, my man."

How a guy as cool and badass as Danny Chambers could be a fan of the Denver Broncos mystified me. He'd had to master the video game for a chance to compete with the rest of the league, given the lack of premier players available to him since he always chose his favorite team.

"Chicken," he taunted, which on any other day might have been enough to goad me into playing a game with him, but I had bigger things on my mind.

"Busy." I headed upstairs with the vacuum and shut off his noise with the machine's whine as I went to work on the carpet in my room. Since my space wasn't the size of Callahan's master suite, and it wasn't my turn to clean our communal bathroom, my chore only took a few minutes. It helped that I'd tidied up earlier.

Satisfied I wouldn't embarrass myself with being a slob in front of my girl, I returned the vacuum to its designated home and stepped into the kitchen to check out what, if anything, we had for snacks. I already knew Chessly liked hot chocolate with marshmallows, and checking the pantry, I saw we had plenty of both. I also spied a bag of peanut M&Ms and several bags of chips, so snacks were covered.

Back in my room, I couldn't settle in to make a head start on my homework, even after I promised myself I'd do exactly that—give myself a little cushion in case studying with Chessly led to other things. Not that I was planning on other things per se, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

I snort-laughed at myself. Who was I kidding? The question wasn't if I was going to spend quality time kissing Chess, but how much time I'd be spending with my lips locked with hers. No wonder I was so antsy.

But it was only noon. I had to give her time for lunch before I texted her to ask if we were still on. I mean, of course we were still on, but it didn't hurt to let her know I hadn't made any assumptions, my thoughts of kissing her notwithstanding.

I dropped to the floor and knocked out forty push-ups. When that barely calmed me, I added thirty squats. Then I remembered my laundry and jogged downstairs to move it. After I jogged back up to my room, I settled myself down enough to sit at my desk and solve five of the twenty problems Professor Fox had dumped on us "to keep us out of trouble" over the weekend. The guy was a peach.

When I checked my phone again, it was after one, which gave me the green light to text Chess at last.

Me: You still up to study together this afternoon?

I kicked back and waited as the little dots waved across the bottom of the screen.

Chessly: In the middle of something. Text you in thirty.

The fuck? I had to wait another half hour to see if we were still on?

Tossing my phone across my desk, I headed downstairs. When I'd scanned the fridge for burritos before breakfast, I'd noticed someone had left half a pizza behind, and I decided it had my name on it. I shoved down several slices of meat lover's and topped it with a beer then returned to my room. A text waited on my phone.

Chess: Do you want to study here or at Hillman?

Me: My place. I'll be over in ten to pick you up.

She didn't need time to think about it and back out. Though she was majoring in physics, she needed reminding that we had chemistry, lots of combustible chemistry. Less than a minute after I texted her, I was backing down the driveway in my truck, headed to her dorm.

When I arrived, I walked past a couple of girls I recognized as running with Tory and her band of jersey chasers. Not wanting to be rude, I gave them a chin tip when they smiled at me, but I kept moving to the phone at the end of the desk. Dialing up her room number, I waited for her to answer.

"Hello?"

"Your carriage awaits, milady."

"You sure? We can always study here. I think the Passion Pit is open."

Was it my imagination, or did she sound a little nervous? What would she have to be nervous about?

"As intriguing as the Passion Pit sounds, I left my books back at my place."

A tiny sigh puffed through the line. "Okay. I'll be down in a few."

She clicked off, and I wandered over to a row of vinyl couches lined up in front of the wide windows overlooking the drive where my pickup waited. I sat on the end of a couch and glanced around the lobby.

Big mistake.

Those jersey chasers took my lack of occupation as an invitation and parked their asses right beside me.

"Hey, Finn. We've missed you at the library." The girl wore a Wildcats jersey over a short skirt. How had I missed that?

"Yeah, Finn, where have you been?" Her friend stood in front of me, twirling her hair and blocking my view of where Chess would arrive from.

"Ladies." I cleared my throat. "I don't want to be rude, but could you back off, please? I'm waiting for someone."

Hair twirler stuffed her hands on her hips. "Who are you waiting for?" The edge in her tone was at odds with the conversation.

"Look, Sally."

"Sadie."

"Right. Right. Sadie, could you give me some space?"

"I hope you aren't here for that witch, Chessly Clarke. Someone said they saw you with her in the Union last week," Mia, the clinger beside me said.

Seeing no way around it, I stood, forcing both girls to give me the room I'd asked for. "Nice seeing you. Have a good day."

I strolled over to the desk, leaned against it, and pulled out my phone. Right then, Chess rounded the corner into the lobby, and my heart did a little happy dance.

I couldn't help the smile stretching my lips. "Hey, you. Ready to go?"

Her answering smile stopped halfway as she glanced past me. "Um—"

"Seriously, Finn? You've been ditching us for her?" Mia sneered.

Hurt flickered over Chessly's features before she composed her face into something bland. The first expression gave me a pang. The second one terrified me.

Taking a step toward her and lowering my voice, I said, "Chess. Do not let these girls wreck our afternoon before it even starts."

Her eyes found mine, and whatever she saw there must have reassured her I meant it because she squared her shoulders and said, "I hope you have snacks 'cause I missed lunch."

Slipping her hand in mine, I turned and walked right between the two jersey chasers who seemed to want to block our exit but stepped aside once they figured out I wasn't going to stop moving.

"She can't possibly be any fun, Finn," Sadie said as I passed by her.

My mama raised me to be polite, especially to girls, but I guess some of them didn't appreciate it enough to return the favor. Still, rather than engage, I kept walking. It wasn't until we were outside the building and halfway to my truck that I caught on that Chessly was having to double-time to keep up with my stride.

"Sorry," I said as I slowed down. "Those two ambushed me the second I hung up the phone with you. I had to work to remember their names even, so don't go thinking I have something going on with them."

I shot her a you-have-to-believe-me look as I opened the passenger door to my truck for her.

She remained quiet as she climbed in, and I worried about that too.

It had taken way too much time and the hell my best friend had gone through last semester for me to catch a clue about Tory Miller and her bunch of jersey chasers. The little scene in the dorm lobby only confirmed my roommates' wisdom in staying far away from those girls. That politeness my mom had drilled into me when I was growing up had its place, and for the most part it had served me well. But maybe I needed to put it aside in certain circumstances. The idea didn't sit well, but given a choice between sneering freshmen whose only interest in me came from the fact I played football and the hot woman currently seated in my ride, there was no contest. Now I needed to convince her of that.